Category Archives: COMMENTARY-Passing parade

35 years ago Voyager 1 was launched. It surveyed the planets, passed through the Kuiper Belt and traversed the Oort Cloud.

Today we are told that Voyager 1 is about to cross a mysterious boundary between our solar system and empty space beyond. And even our best scientific brains are subjectively stumped as to what it is, and what that means, and are looking for a scientific answer. Trouble is, it takes 17 hours for messages to reach us, traveling at 186,000 miles per second, the highest possible speed.

CE is older than me, frail, and I felt for him. I was afraid he’d fall. I think he was looking at that chair longingly, rather than critically for laughs. He wanted to sit on it so that he could talk about Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, but first had to figure out how to make it suitable for RNC ears. Soldiers are heroes of course, but …

So another “great” law firm goes to the wall, and it just happened. Readers can see it for themselves in most of today’s newspapers. The NY Times goes into detail with the filed document.

This has been an opportunity for me to direct people to this site in their comments sections, to read of the experience of Lynn (Redgrave) and me at the hands of Finley Kumble, and the malpractice litigation back in 1987. Only one LA Times journalist gave us a fair shake of an interview, as I remember, reporting on how Lynn was “waiting for her day in court“.

Find it by going to the topics pane on the left, A SPACE FOR REFLECTION, and clicking on “House Calls“. Much will be learned from our real life experience. Forget the textbooks of legal theory, drowned in the smelly waters of good intentions.

So a further 30 million dollars is to be slashed from our court system here in California, the largest in the nation? This is on top of the 70 million already taken away this last fiscal year. That’s, get this, $100 MILLION DOLLARS. This means that by the end of June, there will be:

350 fewer employees

56 fewer courtrooms

No court reporters for civil trials unless bought and paid for by the litigants (Appeal? Good luck with that. Shoot the wounded? They may now shoot the living dead)

Showbusiness meets not just the law, but government too. And what a great story this is!

Feminism, Motherhood, Politics, Security, Family Values, Children, Patriotism, White House, Whore House, Beer, all coming together, if you know what I mean. Ah…America! Brings it all back for me, sixty-two years ago it is. Now I remember why I emigrated from gloomy old England. THIS is why I came to live here!

My youngest daughter Annabel, who took up photography, is reappearing on my radar I’m happy to say. Without any prompting, she’s joining the blog brigade, and I’m happy to link my readers to her website. Here, she chooses today to commemorate the 182nd birthday of the much neglected Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904). She shows the connection between him and the film business, for he predates Edison by several years, with his moving projections of a galloping horse and some naked models in the 1870s. Come to think of it, he was using stereoscopic multiple cameras in much the same way that James Cameron does today. Yes, we certainly owe him!

Muybridge (birth name Edward James Muggeridge) emigrated from England when a young man, and settled in the Bay area of San Francisco. In his forties, he took to himself a young wife named Flora, and while away on one of his photography trips, probably shooting landscapes in Yosemite, or Eskimos in Alaska, or American Indians in Oregon, he returned home to find love-letters between her and another man. She had taken a lover, a Major Larkyns. Did she file for divorce? Did he go to California Family Court? No. This is what he did:

Tonight more saber rattling in the Middle East. Or is it more serious this time? Israel and Iran may well be on the warpath, and our navy is, right now, in the Strait of Hormuz, patrolling the 35 mile wide oilpath between Iran and Iraq with warships.

This is from a concerned (anonymous) reader,:

Iran’s rise to power is thanks to President George W. Bush and his Iraq war. Thanks to him we removed a historic enemy of Iran, Saddam Hussein, from the picture, and they are now poised to take over the Middle East. Remember in the 1980s when Iraq and Iran went to war? During the first portion of that war Iran was whipping Iraq’s behind and so Reagan sent none other than our good pal Mister Rumsfeld to Iraq to sell him WMDs. We did this in hopes of preventing one powerful force from taking over the world’s oil supply. We succeeded up until 2003 when we removed Saddam from power and now the Shia muslims dominate Iraq. So, Iran has virtually conquered Iraq without firing a shot, but by parliamentary elections.

However, that didn’t stop me from encouraging my son Ben to learn to fly it, and later – to keep him out of trouble and stop being a waiter – to consider a career in aviation. That he did, became an instructor, married one of his students, and now flies international for Delta with four stripes. We don’t connect any more, but I hope he’s taking care of his crews and minding his Ps and Qs.

In less than 45 minutes yesterday, just before the usual dreaded down day close, Wall Street, as expressed by the Dow, went up 4%!

45 minutes? A concerted effort by market makers (aka “they”) is what this was. A scientific forensic investigation should be mounted to find out how it is that a huge market can act with all participants in concert with each other.

Our friend Richard Fine, (ex-Esq.) sat in one of the worst jails, the Men’s Central jail in Los Angeles, alone and ignored for a year and a half. He believed in a cause, the cause of honesty and fair dealing by the exalted arbiters – Judges – who hold sway on the lives and well-being of our citizens.

What do the names Weiner, Spitzer, Edwards, Schwarzenegger, Clinton, Gingrich, Strauss-Kahn, Woods, Boehner, Craig – the list goes on and on – what do they have in common? Why, an inability to keep their trousers zipped. Their stories detail the circumstances where men have lost sexual boundaries to the detriment of assorted reputations, and in some cases jobs and marriages. And to the intense glee of the media and the public in this most hypocritical of all societies.

And all they were doing was displaying an inability to control what Bernard Shaw dubbed the “Life Force”. Mark Twain wrote “The very thought of it excites him; opportunity sets him wild; in this state he will risk life, reputation, everything … to make good that opportunity and ride it to the overwhelming climax.”

Well, I have a solution to this, a solution guaranteed to curb this kind of uncontrolled behavior.

I just read in the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail of the celebrities attending the annual Chelsea Flower show in London. Another opportunity to show off their hats.

I see that my old sister-in-law Vanessa was there with her daughter Joely. She named a rose in honor of her other daughter Natasha, who died as the result of a foolish escapade on the slopes of a Canadian ski run a couple of years ago.

I cannot help but ask her why she could not do the same for her young sister Lynn, who has just past the first anniversary of her death on the flats of Kent, Connecticut.

It could be named THE PRINCESS MARGARET ROSE (get it?). For Lynn felt she was always the second favorite daughter in her family.

I just read a review of 2 1/2 Men by a “communications professor” by the name of Robert Thompson. He admitted that while watching and critiquing the show, he would rather be balancing his checkbook.

The fact is, 2 1/2 Men is the only truly honest depiction of male and female behavior in our current American and possibly worldwide culture. It deals with real-life situations, and the greed, dishonesty and scamming that goes on at all levels of society and industry, producing the norms of life today. Its popularity, continuing with huge audience followers watching reruns, deny the premise put forth by this professor of communications.

An article in the NY Times magazine caught my eye. All about the clown antics of a certain Booyah Bozo by the name of Jim Cramer. You will be aware of him if you have hours to kill in front of the TV set, and own a set of securities of diminishing value.

In the old days, we used to go down to our broker (most often Merrill Lynch), and waste hours watching the tape go by, with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. And, of course, trade information and rumors. Outright promotion by the broker was a no-no.

Donald Trump for President with his running mate Sarah Palin, please go for it. Or we wouldn’t even mind Palin for president and Trump underneath her, although one thinks that the Donald doesn’t like to be number two.

But just as McCain showed his statesmanship last time by assuring the election of Obama, it will now be re-assured. Obama will be re-elected, and the Republican party will once again be dumped.

And so it goes, with continued weird U.S. elections. Long Live U.S. style democracy!

This is a wonderful gathering of old-timers, like myself. If you’ve been in the business for 20 years or more, you qualify to apply for membership. We meet for a hearty lunch about once a month (except for summer) at the Sportsman’s Lodge in the Valley. There is always an honoree, being gently roasted by a panel of fellow workers on the dais.

Lately, the place has been more than usually crowded with participants of the Showbiz. My photographer pal, Dave Keeler, wanders around snapping pictures, and if you’re lucky, he might catch you with some old friends, which he did for me at a recent meeting. (If you click on the picture, it will enlarge it.)

If you’re interested in joining, this is their website. Just find somebody who’ll sponsor you.

Tonight, PIERS MORGAN, 45, starts his CNN contract on air, replacing the redoubtable Larry King, 77, in the time-slot of Larry King Live. King avoided controversy. Morgan looks for it. He comes from his editorship of the London tabloids The Sun, The News of the World, and the Daily Mirror. Interesting choice. I was only aware of him as a judge on America’s Got Talent.

But last night I saw him as an interviewer on a 2 year old show from England, with his take on Hollywood in January 2009 from the British POV. Much has happened since then due to the economy, but one remark of his rings in my ears.
“Talent success in Hollywood is measured by how much money you make – for others.”

One senses that things are looking up today mainly, I think, because of upcoming changes in world leadership all around.

Chinese president Hu Jintao pays us a State Visit on Tuesday, bearing signs of flexibility. Our own president Barack Obama promised change as part of his election platform, and is just the guy to be welcoming him to the White House.

In North Korea we have peace-making signs from president Kim Jong-il, possibly because he is turning over the reins to his son Kim Jong-un, who no doubt has some ideas of his own. And of course they want a piece of the South’s action.

Then we have president Fidel Castro, mellowing with age, who has already handed the reins over to his younger brother, now president Raul Castro.

Wouldn’t it be surprising if we find that this country stops marginalizing itself with its self-imposed title of Leader of the World, stops falling back on waving its superior weaponry like some schoolyard bully, and sits down as equals and partners with communists and socialists and liberals and conservatives? Then we can do what we all do best and want most, which is to embrace and improve our families, our children, our grandchildren, our health, and our homes. That, we all have in common. And freedom to travel anywhere and everywhere will be restored after nearly a century of restrictions.

Fine and his daughter Victoria need to get their act together. If his 18 month coercive confinement in solitary is to have any meaning and a good result, we, his supporters, need to be kept informed. The latest information that I had was that he would be in court number 86 down at the Stanley Mosk courthouse at 9:30am, in front of Judge Ann Jones. I went. Nada. Nothing.

This is addressed to my professional actor friends, full members of the Screen Actors Guild, AFTRA, and Equity.

It is to say that I am tired of being invited by student directors to act in their videos, or films, for their benefit and for nothing. This is a huge step backward to the very beginnings of these esteemed organizations, back to the twenties and thirties. Student actors, go ahead. Professional actors, STOP!

I was not invited to my ex-wife’s funeral, not even after 33 years of what I esteem to be a good marriage. She did not want me there, and when I went anyway, my son Ben put me in the hospital with the help of the local Kent, Connecticut guards “obeying orders, mein herr.” Awaking, relieved to find that I was not dead too, things did work out for the better. Now I’ve had time to reflect. Was I right to go, or wrong? I believe the Irish have it right; friends, enemies, everyone’s welcome, and it’s party time!

I asked “Ask Amy”. She said I was nothing more than a hooligan [maybe I am, but a proud hooligan I hope]. I asked my neighbor, who should know more about these things. He does, after all, run the local “Hollywood Forever” cemetery.